The white hot sand sears my left foot with every step I take. While on my right foot I felt nothing at all, it had long been replaced with a mechanical counterpart. The resistance did this in order to give it’s warriors a fighting chance against the enemy. It was useful for a time, but now it was little more than dead weight, barely functioning. The same was true for my right arm and my right eye has long since lost power. There is no one left to repair them and I lack the skills to do it myself. All I could hope for now is a spot free from the sun’s scowl, where I can rest.

As I stumble forward into the endless wasteland of white sand and dry patches of grass that lies before me. My eye searches the land for a place that might offer me some small relief. Being unable to spot any I stop for a moment to remove my cantine form my belt and take a drink of water. After which only about a mouth full of water remained.

Eventually as I walk the vast bone white lands that rippled with with waves of heat. The horizon gave way to a small shadow in the distance. The closer I came to the shadow the more it warped itself into the form of a building.  It was an old barn with it’s outside worn down by the endless barrage of sand, the winds carried its way. The doors were rotting and falling apart, I found quite easy to pry one open. As I did so the door broke free from its hinges and falls to the ground .

I stagger inside finding the interior in the same state as outside. There is one pillar on the inside that seems to stable so drag myself towards it and lean against it, slowly sliding down until I was seated. The ground on the inside was completely filled in with sand, which was not surprising given the holes in the roof. Even though I sat in the shade the sand was still warm to the touch. I slide my fingers through a small dune next to me. I let it pile up in my palm as I slowly lift it from the ground. The higher I would raise my hand the more sand slipped between my fingers. Until the small pale white knoll I held in my hand, whittled down to a few grains.
Watching the sands fall reminded me of my boyhood. When my father would sit me down for 4 hours each day and made me read the classics of time long since forgotten. He would set down an hourglass on the table as he presented me with some dusty old book. I wasn’t allowed to leave until I had readed a sufficient amount of the text. Whenever we began the lesson I would hate him for it, but one day at the end of a lesson he put hand on my shoulder and told me that a warrior needs to sharpen his mind just as he does his blade. He said that the lessons of the past should never be abandoned. After I was finished with my lessons father would then take me out into the yard to train.

From the age of seven my father would train me in the art of the sword as it was our family custom. My father had a great love for the craft, out of all the weapons he trained to use the sword was his favorite. When he first taught me how to properly care for my sword. He would tell me that out all the weapons created by man be that muskets, assault rifles, or pulse cannons. None are more reliable than a sword. A sword will never fail you, it will never malfunction or run out of ammo. I carried those lessons with me when I joined the fight against the androids.

After existing in the world of science fiction for centuries androids were finally brought into reality in the year 2197 by a man named Jon Connington. A few short years following their invention they were staple of every household as standard as a vacuum. They were just our tools, very advanced tools, but tools nonetheless. Until men got the idea to make them more that to give the ability to simulate emotions. Their plan worked rather well, for the robots, not so much for men. When our toys realized that they were toys, they called for a change. At first all they wanted was equality, then they started to believe that they were more than us. As is the destiny of all slaves and their masters, a revolution began.  

They then declared that the earth was now theirs by right. We had created them, but now they believed themselves to be our superiors. Naturally war erupted all around the world, unlike the any we have seen before. The androids struck in the most devastating places, causing droughts, famine and corrupting the atmosphere. The war quickly whittled humanity down to only a few camps scattered here and there, until only my camp remained.

When we hit the end of the rope humanity scrambled to make some sort of plan, anything to give us the smallest glimmer of hope. The resistance decided to give its warriors a fighting chance by augmenting them with cybernetic limbs and body parts. The augments however, were mostly improvised and while they did add to our effectiveness in combat. The tradeoffs were quite substantial, the parts were slowly poisoning us. Even though the doctors and engineers were able to greatly slow the poisons’ spread. They were powerless to completely cure us. In the end we were just fooling ourselves it would never be enough to save us.
The final nail in the coffin came when the androids launched a final assault against us. Men, women, young, old, they spared no one and I couldn’t do a thing to save anyone. When the dust settle what was left of humanity had fallen. Only I remained and like a coward I ran, avoiding the androids for days until there was no where left to go. So as I sit with nothing to do but wait for the end. I can hear them now the androids have come for me. It doesn't matter now I can feel the waste from my augments crawling deep within me. The doors are torn from the barn and androids step forward as draw one final breath.